Time to step up

I am the child of baby boomers - those born between 1946 and 1964. My parents benefitted from the NHS, free university education (grants even!), low house prices and job security. Once they got close to retirement age, they both benefitted from generous redundancy packages that included top-ups to their pensions, allowing them both to retire before hitting 60.

80's me - bird's nest hair and fake collar included!

I'm 33, I chose to go into paid employment after finishing my A levels and as a result was able to buy my first home at 18, and I had my first child at 19, meaning that I feel like I've now (in the last 12-18 months) tipped over into the period of my life where my mortgage and being a young parent are no longer huge millstones round my neck and I feel like I'm hitting my stride in terms of fully stepping into the role of being the 'adult' in my family (as opposed to the child or the pensioner). My mortgage is manageable and I've passed the magic line of now repaying more capital than interest with every payment, and my confidence in my own abilities as a parent is secure (even if tested regularly by my boys!)

It's an interesting time - situations seem to have suddenly flipped with both my parents coming to me to ask questions and find out information, both seeming to have reached a point of acceptance that their children may now know more than them on a lot of subjects. My Mum phoned me last night to ask if she could recommend me to someone who had asked her for support because she knows I'm in a better position to do so than her (she is a careers advisor by trade, I'm a business and life strategist so a fair amount of crossover).

But all of this also comes with responsibilities. Those of us in this stage of our lives now have to step up and decide how we're going to shape the world. No more watching from the sidelines, hoping that our parents and their friends will consider us and our children. No more grouching that we have to live with the decisions they made. Do we want a world that focuses on the individual or that acknowledges there are structural aspects of our society that affect classes of people? Do we want to build systems and beliefs that focus on competition or co-operation? Do we value only (or predominantly) those who are able and have resources, often through no acts of their own? Are we going to tackle privilege and the huge loss of skills to our economies by not supporting the growth of huge swathes of the population?

It's a big challenge, and we are still often thwarted by those 'dinosaurs' as referred to by @alanfreestone, who are reluctant to see the transfer of power away from themselves...but it's time, we're ready.